overheating / radiator

alreadydefective · Post by **alreadydefective** » January 7th, 2007, 4:08 pm

ok, so my car is overheating (and i think i know why), here are the symptoms, bad smell and the temp sensor is going to the H, when the heater is on with heat all the way up, its blowing out cold air, radiator fluid is being pumped back to the resovior, and then after the car is off, it sucks it back in.

i think its happening because when i got a new alt, we took it out, but im pretty sure it got hooked back up right, all the plugs are plugged in, everything is capped, and we even topped off the radiator fluid.

what are some things to look for to try and get this fixed?

thanks
mike

Mnemonic · Post by **Mnemonic** » January 7th, 2007, 4:41 pm

mine recently did that but only once, i've been watching it since christmas, all i did was get a new thermastat but i'm not sure it that was it yet. been topping the radiator off about every other day just to be on the safe side.

alreadydefective · Post by **alreadydefective** » January 7th, 2007, 5:05 pm

ok, ill get some money to replace that, but another thing i noticed is that in neutral, the idle speed increases, then decreases, it goes about 500 rpms higher than it should be, and then goes back down, and then goes back up

Mx3Baker · Post by **Mx3Baker** » January 7th, 2007, 5:08 pm

mine is doing the exact same thing

PATDIESEL · Post by **PATDIESEL** » January 8th, 2007, 12:44 am

Do the coolant hoses collapse when the car gets warmed up? (looks like someone is pinching them)

There are many things that can cause a car to overheat. Bad radiator, not enough radiator fluid, or the wrong mixture of fluid and water. Bad thermostat, bad coolant(radiator) fan, bad thermo sensor/s, or a radiator leak. The only thing that a cold Heater can tell you is one of two things. The heater core is crapped out or there is not enough radiator fluid. A bad heater core does not cause overheating, just cold heater air, or a leak of radiator fluid in the passanger floor board. There are of course numerous electrical problems that can cause overheatin, but we will hope for anyones sake that it is mechanical.

alreadydefective · Post by **alreadydefective** » January 8th, 2007, 2:25 am

yes, the hoses collapes when its warmed up, i was kinda curious about that, when it overheated the first time, it seemed that it was dumping all the radiator fluid into the overflow container, and then would spill out from there when it was full, that was a huge concern, and i still havnt made any progress, i tried to purge the air from it, but that doesnt seem to help any, and it seems to only overhead when im not driving it, but the idling problem is persistant (really confused about that too), but alas, im not entirely convinced that their connected, except that they started to happen at the same time, also, my power steering has also decided to crap out too, which makes me think it might be something electrical...

the only thing i can think of to cause this is when we replaced the alternator, we took out the radiator so that we had room, but everything got hooked back up fine, and it worked fine for a day and a half before anything happened

sorry for the trilogy, but im still not 100%, thought ive gotten better at details

PATDIESEL · Post by **PATDIESEL** » January 8th, 2007, 11:06 am

Then you know what the problem is. If the hoses are collapsing there is a block somewhere. The water pump is pumping, a good thing, and creating a vaccum on the system that is collapsing the hoses. The blockage is not letting the water through so it is being forced out the only outlet it has, the overflow line. So I would start by replacing the thermostat. If that is not it then replace the radiator (how old is the radiator by the way?). If the hoses still collapse then you might have a blcokage in the engine somewhere, but I doubt that is the case. The idle issue is caused from the blockage since the idle air controll valve needs coolant to opperate. Fix the blackage issue and the idle and overheating should stop.

alreadydefective · Post by **alreadydefective** » January 8th, 2007, 12:26 pm

ok thanks, ill be lookings to do that, once i get some money, ill look into the thermostat (want to get a 170 anyways), and if that doesnt fix it, ill be looking to replace the radiator, shouldnt be TOO hard, even though im a newb to cars, but would be a good project to learn about, and um... im not sure HOW old it is, but im pretty sure its old,

, thanks for the heads up

Tempus · Post by **Tempus** » January 8th, 2007, 1:57 pm

Clogging the entire radiator is highly unlikely unless you put something really weird in there.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong on this, but I seem to recall that if the thermostat was installed backwards, it can cause stuff like this? (meaning no circulation, collapsing hoses, etc.)

You know basic trick to test thermostat right? pull it out, take it inside, dump it into pot of cold water on the stove. stick thermometer into water, slowly heat. You should see it visually OPEN up at or fairly near the rated temp. wash pot REALLY good when done..

alreadydefective · Post by **alreadydefective** » January 8th, 2007, 4:25 pm

where exactly is the thermometer, im not sure of it, but once i know where it is, i can take it out, even if i dont drain the radiator fluid, i can always top it off, since i know how to fill it and purge the air from it (reading forums), but yeah, that would be a great help, and then i'd know how to do it

, please let me know or link me to somewhere that gives steps to doing it, thanks

Tempus · Post by **Tempus** » January 8th, 2007, 5:03 pm

The thermometer is in your kitchen drawer I hope.. you know, like one you use for testing how well done meat is.

The ThermoSTAT is in the pipes of your cooling system. Rather than try to describe I suggest
1)open a new browser window or tab, point it at http://WWW.MX-3.COM
2) on left menu of main mx-3.com site, click on Online Shop Manual (you CANNOT open this in another tab, just click the link, it will open its own special window
3) switch to the online workshop manual window it just opened, pic section E2 - cooling system, K8... then pick page E2-008

that gives you the exploded diagram showing where it's located, and you can read from there foward about installing, testing, etc.

alreadydefective · Post by **alreadydefective** » January 8th, 2007, 8:37 pm

ok, i have just one question, is it kinda hidden in the back, out of sight, behind a bunch of wires? eh

alreadydefective · Post by **alreadydefective** » January 9th, 2007, 12:49 am

well, ive ruled out it being the thermostat, i took it out, hooked everything back up, refilled the coolant, and im still getting the weird idling, without the thermostat in, it goes up to 2500 rpms, and then rises to about 3k, then drops back down to 2.5k, i didnt want to drive it tonight to see if it overheats still, but im pretty sure it still will

Mnemonic · Post by **Mnemonic** » January 10th, 2007, 4:23 pm

same problem i was having and hopefully i just fixed it. as it turned out i had some blockage in (well i hope to be in) the Heater core, i pulled one hose and it was bone dry, the other hose i pulled and got sprayed from the pressure. So i had blockage in the heater core as far as i can tell.

Now i'm not saying the same thing that is wrong with mine is the same as yours i have already swapped Radiators, Fans, and Thermostat (its good to grab cheap parts when your at the junkyard from time to time).

alreadydefective · Post by **alreadydefective** » January 10th, 2007, 4:59 pm

actually, when i went searching on the forum for the problem, it said to check my belt i just put on, cause if its off 1 thread, then it could cause somewhat similar problems, well, my power steering / water pump belt was missing, obviously that was my entire problem

, so now i get to get a new bracket, but since my thermostat's rubber is breaking (took it out hoping it was the problem) im just going to replace that while im at it, once i get funds and a job that is, until then, i will fix the problem, and run cold for a few weeks until i get a new job :-/